


'Just a Mechanic'

by Faillen



Series: Make Tomorrow's World Better (Through Any Means Necessary) [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angie's Diner, BAMF Tony Stark, Gang AU, Humor, M/M, not so legal crime fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 19:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6390088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faillen/pseuds/Faillen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Was it Stane again?” Stark shifted his eyes away from Steve’s gaze.</p><p>“Maybe…?” Steve let out a disapproving huff, before grabbing the alcohol soaked cotton ball out of Bucky’s hand and dabbing it on the cut, ignoring Stark’s hiss of pain. Bucky watched this all happen with a sense of disbelief, before the pieces started clicking into place. </p><p>This Tony was the same Tony that signed off as <em>Mrs. Cap</em>. The Tony that Steve had fallen head over heels for four months ago. The Tony that Steve had said was ‘just a mechanic’.</p><p>‘Just a mechanic’, Bucky mentally scoffed. Understatment of the century.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Just a Mechanic'

**Author's Note:**

  * For [castlesbuiltintheair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/castlesbuiltintheair/gifts).



> So a 'few' months ago, I wrote a Gang AU, where Steve and Tony found out about each others identities. At the end of it, there was a little blurb where I introduced Bucky. This part is Bucky meeting Tony, along with a bit of (barely any) plot.
> 
> curiousbees, when I first wrote that story, you mentioned wanting to see Steve explain his relationship to Bucky. This isn't exactly that, but my muse hit a few days ago, and I ended up with this :P
> 
> Reading the first part would probably help with understanding certain parts (especially since I've edited for some continuity issues), but it shouldn't be to confusing even without it.

The door swung shut behind him with a squeak as Bucky walked away, whistling down the dimly lit street. Checking the time on his phone, he furrowed his brow. He might just be able to catch Steve before he headed out for his date.

But rather than the peaceful walk back home that he'd expected, as he approached the next alleyway, he heard the thunk of a body accompanied by a groan. Stopping right before he moved into sight, he peeked around the corner, and was met with the sight of a man stooping down to rummage through the clothes of a fallen man.

The man stood up, seeming to have not found anything, and wiped a hand over his forehead. Bucky could just barely see the glistening red that stained it, “—is going to kill me,” the man mumbled as he pulled out his phone, lighting the alley up with a soft blue glow, “and I’m probably going to be late now. You’d think a man would be more respectful when timing his assassination attempts.”

As his phone distracted the man, another figure slinked out of the shadows, a knife glinting in their grasp. Without hesitating, Bucky dashed into the alley, grabbing the man’s arm and wrenching it backwards before slamming his head into the brick wall next to them.

“Holy shit!” The man yelped, spinning around and catching sight of the last man slumped down against the wall, “Damn, that would’ve been unfortunate.”

“Being knifed in an alley? Yeah, probably.” Bucky took a better look at the man, before raising an eyebrow in recognition.

“Aren’t you Tony Stark?” The man groaned and muttered something about 'incognito mode' before turning to Bucky with a plastic smile.

“I’d rather keep the fact that my business partner is trying to assassinate me under wraps, so, uh,” he paused and reached into the back pocket of his jeans, “I could pay you?”

Bucky’s mouth twisted into a grimace, “No need for that.” He stuck out his hand and Stark looked down at it questioningly, “James Barnes,” looking at Stark’s cut forehead, he let a sympathetic breath out through his teeth, "I’m walking over to a my place right now, we could get you patched up there if you’d like. Scout’s honor that I won’t try anything funny.” He didn’t expect Stark to take him up on his offer, strange men in alleys usually set off warning bells in anyone’s brain, but it was only polite.

Stark grasped his hand in a firm shake, looking him up and down, “Barnes, huh?” he smirked knowingly, although Bucky had no idea why, “Sure, why not, it’ll be easier than calling Happy.”

Bucky smirked back, trying not to show his surprise, “Sounds good, just follow me, and try not to get anymore banged up.”

The other man gave him an overly enthusiastic thumbs up as they started walking in silence. After a few moments, Bucky slid his gaze over to Stark, who had his hands in his pockets, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. Pushing his hair out of his face with his metal arm, Bucky turned his gaze forward, just as Stark let out a small noise. Bucky looked over; ready to challenge the other man to say something about his arm, but instead he was met with a look of some barely repressed emotion.

Meeting his eyes, Stark pointed at Bucky’s arm. “Could I—ah, would it be okay if I asked who made that for you?”

“This thing? It’s a standard issue prosthetic, I got after my tour in Afghanistan.” He looked down and flexed his fingers. It was a pretty good piece of tech, helped him get what he needed done, in everyday and not-so-everyday life.

“Explains the shitty calibration,” Stark muttered, and Bucky’s head shot up. The other man looked up and held his hands up in surrender, “I mean, it’s good, obviously, helps you get what you need done, but you could do so much better with a StarkTech prosthetic.”

“I can’t afford a StarkTech prosthetic,” Bucky replied dryly, and Stark looked a little shamefaced.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to get the prices lower—because they can be, they really shouldn’t be so expensive—but my partner’s been blocking me, and he's got the Board on his side.”

“You mean the partner that’s trying to get you killed?”

Stark nodded and shrugged, “He knows that I know he’s trying to kill me to get control of the company, and I know that he knows I’ve found out about his double dealing and embezzlement. It’s just a matter of actually finding evidence against him, or in his case, killing me,” Tony coughed, before looking away, “Anyway, if you’d like, I could modify it for you, think of it as a thank you for this” He motioned his hand in a wide circle, “Most people aren’t quite as nice.”

“Yeah, well I suppose I’m not most people,” Bucky grinned, “My best friend would kill me if he heard that I’d left someone injured out on the streets.”

“I can imagine,” Stark said, that knowing smile back on his face, “I know a thing or two about friends with golden morals.”

Bucky couldn’t help but scoff, describing Steve as someone with golden morals was the farthest thing from the truth, “I wouldn’t say he’s got _golden_ morals, but he’s definitely the kind of guy that always wants to the right thing.” Even if it meant following a moral compass that was more than _a little_ skewed at times, he finished in his head as they approached his and Steve’s apartment building.

He held the door open for Stark, trying to imagine how the other man might view the place. It was a dinky little building, but it wasn’t horrible, and it was close to HQ, which had been the two main concerns that he and Steve had had when they’d bought it. Of course Stark wouldn’t know that, the man was probably used to having doormen and a lobby the size of Steve and Bucky’s apartment.

When he chanced a glance over at the other man however, he didn’t find a thinly polite smile like he’d expected. Instead, Stark seemed to take everything in with a sense of excitement, and Bucky wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel irritated by it.

Their apartment was at the end of a short hall (first floor, because jumping out windows tended to get exponentially harder as you went higher up, not that Bucky had had any experience with that, of course.) and Bucky unlocked the door and ushered Stark in.

“My roommate is probably in the bathroom getting ready for a date, so you can sit down on the couch and I’ll just grab some supplies from there.” Stark plopped down on the ratty couch, eyes roaming across the paintings on the wall.

Bucky slipped down the hall to the bathroom, leaving Stark to admiring the paintings. It was empty, but there was a light in Steve’s room.

“Buck?” Steve called, “That you?”

“Yep,” Bucky replied, rummaging through their medicine cabinet for bandages and rubbing alcohol, “We have company, so make sure you’re decent before you come out”

“Company?” Steve asked, he stuck his head out of his room and held up two shirts, "Blue or green?"

"Green, and fix your hair, it's a mess," Bucky called back.

"I will," Steve yelled as he disappeared back into his room. Bucky made his way back down the hall with a chuckle, hands full.

Stark was still sitting on the couch when he got back, but he'd abandoned the paintings and had pulled out his phone instead. He put it away as Bucky dumped the supplies onto the coffee table, raising an eyebrow,

“Do we really need all that?”

“It’s a wide scrape, and unless you want to die from infection, yeah, we do.” Bucky began to separate everything, grabbing the rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball. Stark grumbled, but didn’t say anything further, instead opting to watch everything Bucky was doing with laser focus.

“Bucky, I think I like the blue better— _Tony?_ ” Steve slid to a stop at the entrance of the hallway.

“Hey there, sugarplum,” replied Stark with a wave as Steve unfroze and strode towards them, eyes wide.

“What’re you doing here? Is that _blood_?” Steve pushed Bucky out of the way to inspect the cut.

“Got a little banged up on the way to the diner, nothing big.” Steve looked up at him, unimpressed.

“Was it Stane again?” Stark shifted his eyes away from Steve’s gaze.

“Maybe…?” Steve let out a disapproving huff, before grabbing the alcohol soaked cotton ball out of Bucky’s hand and dabbing it on the cut, ignoring Stark’s hiss of pain. Bucky watched this all happen with a sense of disbelief, before the pieces started clicking into place.

This Tony was the same Tony that signed off as _Mrs. Cap._ The Tony that Steve had fallen head over heels for four months ago. The Tony that Steve had said was ‘just a mechanic’.

‘Just a mechanic’, Bucky mentally scoffed. Understatement of the century.

“Hey, Stevie,” Bucky’s voice was deliberately casual. Steve replied with a distracted hum, before looking up questioningly.

“When you said that you’d met a guy named Tony, and that he was also our informant, Iron Man, don’t you think it would’ve been a good idea to mention that you were talking about Tony _Stark_?”

Steve’s eyes widened, and he had the decency to look embarrassed, “It, uh, slipped my mind?”

Bucky could see Stark stifling a laugh out of the corner of his eye, and he rubbed a hand over his face, “Good lord, Steve, if you’re going to get involved with billionaires, give a guy some warning.”

“It just never seemed that important,” Steve replied, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.

Bucky narrowed his eyes, “It is when he’s fending off assassination attempts and trusts guys he just met in an alleyway.”

“Hey, I resent that second point,” Stark piped up, “Steve’s talked about you so much that I knew it was you the minute you introduced yourself, Barnes.”

At the same time, Steve rounded back towards Stark, “I told you that you need to get some protection. One day Stane is going to catch you off guard.”

Stark sighed, “I can defend myself, Steve.”

Bucky snorted, “Did you forget about the guy that would’ve knifed you if it weren’t for me?” Stark shot a glare at Bucky over Steve’s head.

“Not helping, Barnes.”

“I’m not trying to.” If this was Steve’s boyfriend, then the last thing Bucky needed was Steve being kept in the dark about his safety.

“Why won’t you let me help you?” Steve asked, tangling his fingers with Stark’s.

“I’ve told you, Steve, the Avengers have to take care of Red Skull’s side of things, and I have to figure out Stane’s. This isn’t just alleyway ambushes—this is backroom deals and corporate manipulation, and I need evidence. Trying to scare Stane into submission won’t work.”

Bucky couldn’t help but agree—Stark was right. Red Skull was the kind of opponent Steve and the Avengers could take down, and was taking down, which was probably why Stark had offered his services as an informant in the first place. But just like how Stark wouldn’t have been able to take down the Red Skull, Steve couldn’t take down Stane, it was up to Stark to do so.

With a resigned sigh and one more cursory swipe with the cotton ball, Steve turned and grabbing a bandage from off the coffee table. He unwrapped it and smoothed it across the cut on Stark’s forehead, before dropping a kiss on it and pulling the man up to stand, "We have to figure something out, I doesn't feel right to leave you wide open while I have the entirety of the Avengers backing me up."

Stark pressed a kiss to Steve's jaw, "I know, but you have to trust me as well. Anyway, I'm working on something right now, and I think it'll help. I'll tell you about it over dinner."

"Maybe you could bring him to the next meeting at HQ?" Bucky suggested, holding back the urge to fake-gag at the show of affection. They'd be able to get input from the rest of the Avengers, which would probably do far more good and be far more objective than anything Steve could think of at the moment.

Steve turned to Bucky with a thoughtful look, "That would probably be a good idea. We can get Natasha's input on infiltration as well. Tony?"

Stark's eyes were wide, as if Steve had given him a gift. "You'd be okay with that?"

"Of course," Steve replied, furrowing his eyebrows, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Stark shook his head, "No reason," He dismissed it with a wave,  "I'd definitely be willing to sit in on the meeting, I think its time that I met some of your crime-fighting friends," he said with a grin before looking at the wall clock past Bucky's head, "and if we start now, we'll still be able to make to Angie's within the hour."

"Angie's?" Bucky asked, surprised, "She approves of him?"

"Yep," Steve dropped a kiss on Stark's temple, his mouth curving up into an amused smile as the shorter man made an affronted noise,.

Bucky smiled back. If Stark had gotten Angie's approval, then Bucky saw no reason to doubt him. But he still pointed a joking finger at Stark, “You. Bring him back before midnight. And I still have to give you a shovel talk.”

Stark grinned, “I’m looking forward to it. You should come by the tower sometime, I was serious about those modifications.”

“Sounds good,” Bucky said, walking towards the door and opening it as the couple trailed after him, “Now get out of here, you both are disgustingly in love, and I don’t know if I can take it anymore.”

"Can't take the amount of sexy, you mean," Stark shot back. Steve and Bucky looked at Stark incredulously, before bursting out into laughter. 

"That was _horrible_ , Tony," Steve gasped out, trying to control himself, while Bucky tried to do the same.

Stark pouted, "I'm wounded, sugar, you can't do that to my ego."

Steve shook his head with a chuckle, "Like your ego needs any more stroking."

He led the genius out the door with a hand on his back, shooting one last smile at Bucky before shutting the door, but unfortunately not fast enough to cut off Stark's reply of, "I know some other things you could stroke."

Bucky groaned and let his head thud against the door, trying to get rid of the mental images that _delightful_  reply had spawned. He could hear their laughter fade as they went further down the hall, and he pulled out his phone after a few moments.

Tony ‘effing Stark, huh?

Clint's head was going to _explode_ when he told him.

**Author's Note:**

> Woah, you made it to the end :D
> 
> I am definitely up for writing more in this 'verse, so if you have any ideas, feel free to share :) You can also find me on tumblr: [Faillen](http://www.faillen.tumblr.com)


End file.
